Arab Support Swings to Hezbollah

Posted on Jul 27, 2006

Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia have all started sounding off about Israeli aggression. And even Al Qaeda, which is normally hostile to all Shiite groups, has thrown its support behind the militants fighting against the vaunted Israeli military.

N.Y. Times:

DAMASCUS, Syria, July 27 ? At the onset of the Lebanese crisis, Arab governments, starting with Saudi Arabia, slammed Hezbollah for recklessly provoking a war, providing what the United States and Israel took as a wink and a nod to continue the fight.

Now, with hundreds of Lebanese dead and Hezbollah holding out against the vaunted Israeli military for 15 days, the tide of public opinion across the Arab world is surging behind the organization, transforming the Shiite group?s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, into a folk hero and forcing a change in official statements.

The Saudi royal family and King Abdullah II of Jordan, who were initially more worried about the rising power of Shiite Iran, Hezbollah?s main sponsor, are scrambling to distance themselves from Washington.

An outpouring of newspaper columns, cartoons, blogs and public poetry readings have showered praise on Hezbollah while attacking the United States and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for trumpeting American plans for a ?new Middle East? that they say has led only to violence and repression.